


The War At Home: Day 2

by serendipityxxi



Series: The Void [5]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: AU, Aether, Crocotta, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, The Void, by learning to use the troubles, cocoon Trouble, fixit fic, heart hounds, solving the troubles, spidren, temporary major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-03 00:27:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15807618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: Audrey, Duke and Nathan escape the Void and solve the Troubles. Mostly...Note: There is major character death in Chapter 3 it is undone in Chapter 4.





	1. New Tricks

**Author's Note:**

> Gars and heart hounds are stolen shamelessly from The Sword of Truth series. Spidren are stolen with the utmost respect from Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe.
> 
> Major thanks to Jadzibelle for all the hand holding, comma inserting, workshopping and "yes, good"s that helped this fic along! <3

Morning comes a lot sooner than expected. Audrey doesn’t know what wakes her but when she does the light around the blinds is blue with the oncoming dawn and there are three black blobs floating towards the window. She can feel her brows furrow even as her brain ticks over identifying what the hell she’s looking at.

Aether?

“Audrey!” Duke pleads.

She scrambles to sit up. Duke’s back is pressed against the headboard, terror pouring off him even as a fourth blob streaks from his eyes. His fingers are curled around her shoulder, digging in with the force of his fear. He must have shaken her awake or made a sound or something.

Audrey doesn’t even think, she slams her hand out and grabs control of the Trouble leaking free. It doesn’t come as easily as the aether in the void. It's not the aether that fights her. She can feel the aether straining towards her. It wants to come to her. She knows it's Croatoan who fights her. Audrey's hand shakes in this surreal tug of war, the little black blobs bobbing closer and further away. Sweat breaks out on her forehead as she pours all her energy into pulling.

No.

She’s not letting him have this.

She won’t let him do this to Duke.

The aether hangs in the balance for long moments. Audrey doesn’t know if she’s strong enough to hold it but she has to. She has t--

Instinct moves her. She grabs the vial of aether from the drawer of the nightstand with her free hand and flicks the cap off. Beside her she can feel Nathan waking up but she can’t break her focus. She gets a blob of aether from it on her hand and then twists her wrist, sending the four blobs into a spin, they swirl into a mini tornado and the answering pull is weaker now as the aether gains strength in its spin. She demands it go back into the vial and it does, coalescing into neat grape sized blobs. Audrey screws on the cover fiercely.

Duke’s head is tipped back against the headboard, hand up covering his eyes. Nathan’s on the other side of the mattress, holding onto Duke as if he might float away like the aether. Audrey didn’t even see when he got up.

“The hell just happened?” he demands.

Duke shakes his head but Audrey gets up on her knees, gets her hands on Duke’s cheeks.

“Duke, breathe,” she orders.

He sucks in a loud shaky breath at her words like he’d forgotten he needed to do that. His brown eyes are so wide in alarm she can see flecks of gold in his irises. She’s never seen Duke look this scared before.

“I didn’t know he could do that,” Duke says in a rush.

“Neither did I,” Audrey assures him, taking deep pointed breaths so Duke mimics her.

“Audrey—“ Duke doesn’t finish his sentence, he doesn’t have to. She gets it.

“Croatoan did that?” Nathan demands. “Croatoan was, what, pulling Troubles out of Duke? He can do that?”

“A man of many talents,” Duke croaks out.

“He could feel me, pulling it back. I know because I could feel him. He wasn’t expecting that I’d be able to do that,” she can feel a vicious smile splitting her face.

“Audrey, if he can do that,” Duke shakes his head, dislodging her hands. “He could pull all the Troubles in my blood… generations of Crockers have been-- He could pull them _all_. He could _use_ them. He’d be unstoppable.” She can feel the fine tremor tracing through his body at his words. “I can’t… I won’t be responsible for that,” he says but the words are more plea than declaration. “I can’t!” he vows, “not after the Trouble bomb. I can’t go through-“

“Hey,” Nathan cuts him off, running his hand in soothing strokes up and down Duke’s arm. “Not going to let that happen,” he promises Duke, looking to Audrey for back up.

“Never going to happen,” Audrey agrees.

But Duke squirms out from between them to pace the floor. Audrey watches him drag his hands through his hair in barely restrained panic then turn back to them.

“I won’t live with that.” His words are firm, measured and the panic is still there but there’s resolve under it that sends a chill up Audrey’s spine.

“Duke-“ she reaches a hand out to him.

“No, Audrey.”

She gets to her feet and crosses the floor to grab his hands. “I’ll stop him, Duke. I won’t let him do that to you,” she swears gripping his wrists tight with the force of her words, hoping he can see how much she means it. She won’t let Croatoan hurt him like this. It’s not going to happen.

Duke’s shoulders sag in defeat. “For how long, Audrey? How long can you hold him off?” he asks, voice gone thready.

Audrey hates this entire situation. She hates it so much. But most especially she hates Croatoan. _Hates_ him.

“We need a plan,” Nathan says quietly from the bed.

They spend over an hour wrapped around each other talking quietly as the light behind the blinds goes from blue to white. It is not an easy hour, only the warmth and closeness of her boys keeps it bearable. With Nathan and Duke pressed together hip to hip, Audrey curls herself on Duke’s other side, chin resting on his shoulder, Nathan’s hand in hers on Duke’s lap. This newfound closeness has sharpened them as a unit, they’re working better together than ever before. It’s grounding having them so close and so in sync. It’s good to be able to reach out and touch them, without worrying about crossing lines or what it all might mean. There are a thousand other questions, what they mean to each other is not one of them. The other answers they come up with are not ones Audrey’s very fond of.

\-----

They get breakfast and go into the station. Duke drives while Audrey and Nathan make calls. Dwight’s not there yet but McHugh had the overnight shift along with Stan, Rebecca and a few others. It’s a good mix of Guard and HPD. Construction is still going strong but Shawna Collins promises them they’ll have the cameras up and running by noon.

McHugh is the one that briefs them. Audrey still doesn’t know what his first name is. She hopes it’s something like Fred or Carlton. She wonders where Dwight’s getting all these big blond beefy Viking-looking guys. There’s another guy in the Guard named Paul who looks like he goes to work at a forge. Maybe they’re Dwight’s cousins for all she knows.

When McHugh announces there were crocotta attacks overnight Audrey’s blood goes cold. She’d been hoping they hadn’t made it out of the Void. She hates that they’re in Haven. Hates it. Fifteen people died last night, including Don Keaton. Of the fifteen, only six of them were Troubled. The creatures from the Void don’t seem to be too particular about who they attack.  A gar killed three people on Turpin Street. So far they’ve only been able to identify one of them. There was one death from the No Marks Killer, around six a.m. Right around the time Duke woke them up. Tom West was found by his wife Cassie. He was Matthew West’s uncle. He could start fires with his mind. He lived two blocks away from Nathan which ties in to Audrey’s theory that Croatoan can only sense the Troubled if they’re within a certain radius.

Audrey is about to slip into her office for a few minutes alone when Vickie comes up to her; her body language is hesitant so Audrey smiles warmly at her in reassurance.

“Everything okay?” she asks.

Vickie unclasps her hands and takes a breath. “I know I’m not high on the priority list but do you think we could make a switch for my Trouble?”

“Of course!” is Audrey’s response, she feels a little bad she hadn’t offered. Vickie’s been a huge help to them.

They sit down in her office and it’s good, it’s easy talking to Vickie. She’s relaxed and open, they get along well. Vickie doesn’t freeze up or get surly and defensive. She comes at it logically, and before the first Troubled person on Audrey’s list makes it into the station Vickie can turn on and off her Trouble. Audrey was perfectly willing to tell Nathan they broke that ugly ass mug in the name of science but Vickie surprises them both by being able to draw it back together once the pieces are stacked, she draws the cracks and then erases them and just like that it looks like it was never broken in the first place.

The next person Audrey cures is a guy so unremarkable she forgets his name twice. Roger Meijer is used to it. His Trouble makes everyone forget him. The only reason Audrey knows about him is because of Vince’s list. She has to have seen him a dozen times but she honestly can’t say she remembers him. His Trouble isn’t even one of the new ones she’s not immune to. He’s just that forgettable. Medium brown hair, brown eyes, average height, build, weight, mid-forties. Sitting across the table from him now, Audrey gets the impression that Roger enjoys his Trouble and if she didn’t need him she’d bust him for that string of robberies out at the Quik Stop. He lives right near there and they’ve long suspected it’s a Troubled person committing them because they can never catch the guy no matter how many cameras Denny installs. Unfortunately, she has a feeling she’s going to need Roger sooner, rather than later.


	2. Better to Feel Nothing?

Nathan’s in the Chief’s office, working through his list. Dwight and Duke are set up in two of the interrogation rooms, not the friendliest of places but it affords privacy. Despite the inhospitable atmosphere Duke is in the lead for most Troubles cured today.

“Gonna put you out of a job, Audrey,” Gloria teases when she meets the two of them by the coffee pot.

Duke blushes and Audrey laughs.

“I would gladly turn over the title,” she says bumping Duke with her hip.

They haven’t finished chuckling when the station doors stutter a few times, drawing their gazes. Before Stan can get there they fly open like someone gave them a kick. Two women Audrey doesn’t know burst in. They’re carrying what might be a rug between them. Audrey does not actually believe it’s a rug. Rugs don’t twitch like that. Her heart sinks at the thought that someone got wrapped up by a spidren.

“We need to see Audrey Parker,” the smaller one pants.

Of course they do.

“I’m Audrey Parker,” she calls, hurrying across the room, Duke hot on her heels.

The woman lets Stan take the weight and rushes to grab onto Audrey’s arm. “Please, you’re the one who fixes the Troubles right? You have to help Megan before her Trouble takes her over!” She glances back over her shoulder and Audrey realizes it’s not spidren webbing at all. It’s still some kind of filament wrapped tightly around Megan. Her legs are bound together but the weave of the threads are looser the higher up her body they go. Audrey suppresses a shudder remembering being cocooned in that blanket her first week here in Haven.

“We’ll do what we can,” is the best Audrey can promise.

Duke pulls away the threads that have covered Megan’s face even in the last few moments. She’s sobbing hysterically, the entire station is looking at them.

Yeah, this is going to be easy.

Duke raises his eyebrows at Audrey and directs Stan right into Nathan’s office with Megan, while her friends follow them, talking over each other and swiping at the threads on Megan’s face. When the fibers are gone Megan is a pretty twenty-something with green eyes and a face red from sobbing.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Brooke, the shorter of the two, promises Megan, “we’re here. They’ll fix you.”

Nathan’s eyebrows all but disappear into his hairline when they burst into his office.

“We need the couch,” Duke explains as he and Stan set Megan down gently.

They step back and it’s then that Audrey sees the bump of Megan’s stomach and realizes that she’s pregnant too. Like things weren’t complicated enough.

Nathan ushers the Troubled person he was talking to out of the room while Audrey kneels in front of Megan. She gets her hands on the woman’s cheeks.

“Megan,” she tries, but Megan is crying so hard she’s starting to hyperventilate. “Megan,” she tries again, while Peyton and Brooke crowd around peeling sticky fibers away from their friend’s face and shoulders. They only get about halfway down her forearms before the threads are too tightly woven.

“Megan, my name is Audrey Parker, I’m here to help. Have you heard of me?” she asks and yes, the name lights up something in Megan’s terrified brain. She sucks in a huge breath and nods.

“Please,” she tremors out, “I can’t stop.”

“Can’t stop what?” Audrey asks, tugging at the top of the wrapping but it won’t budge, it’s not hard like plastic but springy like an ace bandage and just as unbreakable.

“The cocoon, I’m doing it and I can’t,” she sobs, “can’t stop!”

“Get me some scissors,” Audrey orders.

“It’s no use! You can’t cut it off!” Megan wails, voice edging towards hysteria.

“Megan, listen, Megan I know this is scary but you’re probably only making it go faster by being so upset. Can you take some deep breaths and calm down for me?” Audrey asks.

“Stop saying my name like that!” she shrieks and Audrey rocks back on her heels.

“Like what, M-” Audrey catches herself in time.

“Like we’re friends! We’re not friends, you don’t even know me,” she cries.

“That’s true,” Audrey agrees. “Can you tell me a little about yourself?”

“What does it matter anyway? I’m going to be cocooned alive in a couple minutes!” Megan wails.

“All the more reason to cooperate with the nice lady who might save you from your Trouble,” Duke says lightly.

“Her name’s Megan Appelo, she’s six months pregnant. Her Trouble started acting up yesterday and she said nothing because she thought it’d be easier to hide from the world in her giant cocoon rather than deal with being Troubled,” Brooke explains with a glare at her friend.

“Not funny, Brooke!” Megan shouts.

“Y’know what’s going to be funny? When you can’t talk anymore because you were being a brat to the people who were trying to help you!”

Megan bites her lip fiercely and then sucks in a shuddering breath. A tear slides down her cheek. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

“Do you have a history of Troubles in your family?” Audrey asks, trying to get back on track.

“No!” Megan wails, “We were never Troubled! We only moved here when I was in high school!”

Behind her Duke winces.

“My family’s been Troubled for years, Megan,” Nathan steps forward, crouching next to Audrey. Megan hiccups in a breath, eyes wide on Nathan’s. “Gonna need you to calm down,” Nathan gruffs out and maybe it’s the authority in that grumbly voice or those cheekbones of his but she stops her hysterics. “Feelings, strong ones, they make Troubles worse. Ok?”

Megan nods and draws in another shaky breath. She lets it out slower than the last. Not calm by any means but working towards it. Nathan puts his hand on her cheek and smiles at her. “You can do this,” he tells her, voice full of warmth and confidence. There is so much softness in Nathan Wuornos. He hides it behind his job and his badge and his monosyllabic Mainer crap because he feels he has to, because Garland Wuornos taught him that, but at his core he is a gentle man. Audrey is reminded of all this while Nathan gets Megan to match his breathing and calm down.

“That’s good,” he croons and Audrey glances over to find Duke looking at Nathan like he hung the moon. It makes Audrey grin to see it.  It’s good to know they both appreciate Nathan’s softer side.

“Tell us about your Trouble,” Nathan coaches and Megan opens her mouth and closes it, at a loss for words. “When did it start?” Nathan prompts.

While Nathan talks to her Audrey gets up and gets the scissors anyway. Megan watches her warily but doesn’t start crying or shouting again so Audrey counts it as a win.

“I got hit with the black blobs when everyone else did. I had a few outbreaks since then but nothing this bad!” Megan glanced at Peyton who nodded grimly. “This started last week. I had an argument with my boyfriend. Another one, about,” Megan glances down at her stomach, “about the baby,”

“Is it a girl or a boy?” Nathan asks, distracting her as Audrey tries to snip away at the threads holding her in. They’re good strong scissors but they may as well be trying to cut through concrete.

“Bolt cutters,” Audrey mouths to Duke who rises smoothly to his feet with a nod.

“It’s a girl.” Megan can’t keep back a small sob, she glances back up at Nathan with pleading eyes. “I never wanted a baby! My boyfriend Oliver, he was the one who wanted the baby and he’s dead now! He died yesterday! And I’m all alone and Troubled and having a Troubled baby and what am I supposed to do?” Megan starts to cry again.

Nathan uses the pads of his thumbs to wipe her tears. “Keep pushing through,” he offers, “s’all we can do.”

Megan hiccups a laugh, high and edging back toward hysterical.

“Tell us about Oliver,” Audrey suggests and Megan snaps her gaze back to her.

“You’re just trying to distract me so I’ll calm down,” she accuses.

“Is it working?” Audrey asks and Megan laughs again, less hysterical this time.

She sucks in a breath and winces as her stomach presses up against the cocoon probably.

“Oliver…when we first got together we wanted the same things – to travel and see the world, to get out of the smalltown life. We were together for four years when I found out I was pregnant. I was terrified and angry, there went all my plans,” she casts a guilty look at her belly, “but Oliver, he was thrilled! He convinced me to have her. He swore up and down he’d be the one to do all the heavy lifting, all I had to do was grow her and love her,” Megan says the last part by rote, like she’d heard it a million times.

She shakes her head and looks up at Nathan. “He was so _happy_ y’know?” Nathan nods and Audrey has a moment of cold panic, she’s sure there’s nothing Nathan would love more than a houseful of babies.  

Luckily Megan continues before Audrey has to follow that thought any more.

“And I guess I just…I went along with it because well what else was I going to do? I was an administrative assistant, I didn’t really have any money for travelling. And Oliver was set to inherit his father’s farm so where was he really going to go? Who was I kidding? Things were- they were good after that.  We…we were okay,” she nods, as if reassuring herself, “things were good. And then I got Troubled. I felt like such a freak. When I found out that Troubles are passed along in the bloodline we argued, biggest fight we’d ever had, whether we should still have her. What kind of life we were even setting her up for with the shroud and the town and everything?” Megan looks down at her belly helplessly.

“Listen, Megan,” Nathan says seriously, drawing her gaze back to his. “Audrey here, has a way to get control of your Trouble. We’re going to find a way to get the shroud down. We’re going to fix this town,” he tells her, voice low and solemn and intense. He really believes in what he’s saying, if Nathan Wuornos is anything it’s passionate about his beliefs.

Megan nods and her eyes fill again. “Even if you do, even if you fix me, what am I going to do?” she asks, voice wobbling, not with hysteria now. Her pain is raw, it radiates, makes Audrey feel guilty for being short with her earlier. “He’s dead,” she sobs, “he’s dead and I’m alone and I can’t keep it together enough to stop my Trouble from swallowing me whole far less raise a baby!” She shakes her head, dislodging the tears from her cheeks.

The strands of the cocoon had stopped rising before but now a few are slithering together before Audrey’s gaze. Where is Duke with those bolt cutters? She knows damn well they have bolt cutters here at the station.

“Do you know what the worst part is? He was Troubled too! He was Troubled, his whole family was Troubled! That’s how their farm came back from near bankruptcy last year! And none of them told me. Not one of them had the decency to tell me. They let me feel like a freak! They let me feel so damn alone!” Megan’s face grows red with her rage.

“You’re not alone, Megan,” Nathan gruffs out, “got two friends literally carried you in here,” Nathan nods to Peyton and the other one whose name Audrey’s already forgotten. They’re standing by the door looking all kinds of awkward.

Megan laughs scornfully. “They’re not my friends. They’re Oliver’s sisters.”

“It’s not that we didn’t want to tell you,” the quiet one finally bursts out. “You were so down on being Troubled, we figured you’d bolt if you found out the whole family was,” she confesses, face contorted with guilt.

“So it was better I learn about it from Oliver creating a giant hedge of thorns out of nothing to keep those weird wolfy things from eating us and then watching that hedge _devour_ him?” Megan shouts.

Nathan winces.

Oliver’s sisters have no answer for that.

Megan turns back to Audrey and Nathan, her words coming faster and faster as if now that she’s started talking she can’t stop. “The vines just grew, out of the ground, like Oliver called them. We were on our way back to the main house, we’d been talking in the barn. It was barely twilight! We were supposed to be safe on the farm! But then the wolf things were just there on the path ahead of us,” she shudders. “I was so scared and he just stepped right up. I thought they’d kill him but then the vines started growing with thorns as long as my finger! And they kept growing and growing. The wolf things rushed them and I heard them yelping, heard the crack of their bones and still the vines kept growing. Oliver looked scared one minute, then he went pale and then the vines just drew him in too! I ran then, back to the barn but by the time I got back with the axe I couldn’t even see him. He’s dead,” she says softly, like she still can’t believe it. “He’s dead because he was Troubled, he’s dead because he was protecting me, protecting us! And the worst part is I can’t even be mad because he’s dead and he’s not here for me to be mad at. How could he do this to me? How could he do this to _her_?” Megan asks Nathan.

“Betrayal like that-- hurts,” Nathan agrees and Audrey can tell he means it, his voice thick with emotion. “Not something you can walk off,” he tells Megan and Audrey can hear the echoes of Garland Wuornos telling his son to walk off dozens of hurts like they meant nothing. “Hard to get mad when the person who betrayed you’s dead. S’easier to just… push away the emotion.”

“Pretend you walked it off. Ignore it, hope it goes away on its own.” Megan agrees. She really feels like he gets her, Audrey can tell.

“My-“ Nathan hesitates here and Audrey wonders if he’s going to talk about his father. “My mother died when I was little,” he tells Megan but Audrey is the one who holds her breath. Of all the things he might have said she wasn’t expecting that. She’s _never_ heard him talk about his mother. “I was angry with her, but I’d never admit it, felt guilty about it, pushed it down,” his words come slowly, like they’re crawling out of his throat by force. “Couple weeks later I got hurt, hurt really bad and I started to cry, started to call for her like little kids do and then I remembered she couldn’t come, she was dead. Was like she’d betrayed me by dying all over again.” Nathan shakes his head, cheeks colored with shame even as he speaks.

He pauses, waits until Megan meets his eyes again. “That’s when my Trouble kicked in.”

He watches her suck in a breath. He told her when they first started but she’s probably forgotten. He watches her eyes dart around his frame as if looking for some sign of it. Watches her come to grips with the idea that the nice police man who’s been helping her is Troubled too. He seems so normal.

He grins, slow and self-deprecating. “Can’t tell just by looking at me,” he agrees. “Not a flashy Trouble. Don’t grow any extra arms,” he jokes. And he really needs to smile when he says these things, poor Megan looks a little horrified at the thought.

“Can’t feel anything, that’s my Trouble,” he explains. “Went away when the Troubles went away that time. Came back when they came back this time. Hasn’t been easy to live with but you find ways to cope. Can’t say I understood why they came on back then, but both times was because I was hurt and didn’t want to feel it, felt stupid and small and angry.”

Audrey watches understanding dawn in Megan’s eyes. She nods.

“Life isn’t worth living without the hurt,” he tells her and that is some serious Mainer bullshit if Audrey has ever heard any but Megan looks like she gets where he’s coming from. “Need the lows to feel the highs, without both you may as well be,” he shrugs before saying, “numb.”

“Or in a cocoon,” Megan offers, her lower lip trembles but she clenches her jaw to stop it.

“We can help you build an off switch. Help you to control your Trouble. But you have to find what triggers your Trouble, Megan, have to be able to hold on to the feelings that counteract it.”

Megan nods and Audrey rises from her crouch, knees aching horribly to go retrieve one of the needles from his desk. Her eyes fall on Duke, paused in the doorway with the bolt cutters in his hand, looking as amazed as she feels at the words that have come out of Nathan’s mouth.

He steps wordlessly back into the hallway and clomps back in loudly a moment later. “Sorry that took so long, someone borrowed the ones in inventory. Had to get these from McHugh’s truck.” No one asks why McHugh has bolt cutters in his truck.

Nathan glances over his shoulder and smiles at Duke. “Don’t think we’re gonna need em anymore,” he turns back to Megan with an encouraging look. She smiles at Nathan tremulously.

“Still good to have back up though,” she jokes.

By the time they’re done Megan, Peyton and the other one- Brooke – are all in tears. The cocoon warps and basically unravels before their eyes, the threads going loose and lax so that Megan is able to free herself with some help from the rest of the room.

She hugs Nathan, hard, when she’s finally free. “Thank you,” she whispers into his ear and Audrey knows this is one win that’s going to stay with him, one of the wins he’ll think about and hold like a talisman on dark days. It’s a good one she’ll admit as she and Duke sweep up the loose fibers on Nathan’s carpet and couch.

They don’t get to talk about anything because before it’s all been swept away there’s another crisis brewing in the bullpen. Audrey doesn’t see Duke or Nathan for another two hours, she’s so caught up in curing Troubles.She only comes out of her office when she hears another ruckus by the front doors of the station.

Three of the guard burst in the station doors. Leo Trace and Cara Adams drag in the hulking Sam Anderson between them. Sam’s bleeding, there’s webbing clinging to all three of them and then Audrey spots the hand-sized stinger still lodged in Sam’s belly.

“Spidren, on Jackson Way,” Cara rasps out, sounding like she’s been screaming.

“We couldn’t make it to the hospital. The roads are blocked,” Leo explains while Gloria makes Sam lay down.

Audrey feels her heart sink.

Croatoan is making his move.

Sooner than anticipated too.

He’s boxing them in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a favourite part? Favourite line? Why not tell me in the comments? :)


	3. Croatoan's Move

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so BIG NOTE HERE: a major character dies at the end of this chapter. However it only lasts 3 minutes before it is fixed in the next chapter. Skip to the next chapter if you don't want to see that.
> 
> Major thanks to Jadzibelle for editing and workshopping and everything else this chapter needed <3 <3 <3

McHugh calls Dwight who promises to deal with their spidren problem but over the next forty minutes seven more people pile in bringing reports of attacks from the surrounding area. Gloria stitches Sam up three separate times; each time the spidren venom dissolves the stitches. Sam is grey faced and panting by the time Vickie steps in and offers to help. She sketches Sam’s torso including the wound in quick, precise strokes and then with a careful hand erases the gaping hole in Sam’s abdomen. The skin closes in like there was never any wound.

When it’s clear he’s not going to start bleeding again Cara and Leo prise him up. Sam is half delirious from pain and at least six inches taller than the pair of them but it’s clear from their body language no one else is touching him. They struggle down the hall, back to one of the cells where there are at least cots to lay down on. Sam is not out of the woods yet, they need something to counteract the spidren venom but there’s nothing they can do until the roads are clear.

Vickie takes care of most of the minor wounds after that, while Gloria keeps busy with the more serious ones that need medical attention and Audrey and Nathan keep track of the information coming in. There are spidren to the west and north of the station and Raphael D’Amato can’t say what was in the road but it was big and it took out two of his tires. The only reason he made it to the station is because he had his shotgun with him.

TJ Smith is among the refugees piling into the station. Audrey didn’t have him on her list, had almost forgotten about his Trouble but wow, is that one they need on their side. She’s about to leave McHugh to deal with the scared crowd and try and cure TJ when two things happen in quick succession. First, there’s a thump at the station door of a body slamming itself against the tough old wood. Everyone goes incredibly still, some animal instinct prompting them all to listen carefully to the threat of danger. The thump comes again, and again, and then the howls start. Long, loud cries that make Audrey’s blood run cold. The scrabble of claws against brick is loud in the unnatural silence.

The second happens while everyone’s eyes are on the station doors. No one notices the change that comes over Duke until TJ cries out in alarm. Audrey turns to find Duke holding TJ in a headlock and for a moment automatically assumes TJ’s a threat, her hand going for the gun at her hip.

Her misunderstanding doesn’t last long.

Duke’s eyes have gone aether black and empty, sweeping the station wary but cold as if unconcerned that he could be hurt. This isn’t the hunter Duke of the Void, feral and wild. No, this is Croatoan’s tool, his soldier. Panic flares hot and wild in Audrey’s chest as she registers the transformation. They weren’t expecting this. They hadn’t planned on this. She’d thought Croatoan had to physically be in the room to control Duke.

“Just let me go, man,” TJ pleads high and scared. “I got a kid to look after.”

There’s nothing of Duke in his expression as he smirks at TJ’s fear. “Just think of how much pain you’ll be saving him when he doesn’t grow up to be troubled, TJ,” this creature that is Duke but not Duke says, voice sibilant and smooth as he promises to end TJ’s life.

“We’re not letting you out of here,” Nathan says, the words a declaration, a fact. Audrey is so glad he’s on her side in this. If anyone can reach Duke it’s Nathan.

Duke tilts his head in a way that is so reminiscent of Croatoan it makes Audrey want to back up. “Your choice, Nathan, but the heart hounds are coming in unless I go out to them. It’s up to you.”

There’s a ripple of fearful whispers from the crowd, murmurs and squeaks as people rearrange themselves to better face the door or to back away from it. Nathan remains focused, eyes on Duke’s face, arms crossed, expression determined.

“They’re not getting in. You’re not going out. We’re not letting Croatoan pull your strings like a puppet.” He says it calmly, definitively.

Duke chuckles dark and snide. “You think he’s making me do this? You think he’s pulling my strings? Come on, Nathan, even you can’t be this dense! I’ve been working with him from the beginning! Why do you think I came back? To save you?” Duke scoffs.

It’s exactly the kind of thing Croatoan would do. Audrey watches Nathan, wary of his reaction here.

Nathan doesn’t growl, doesn’t snap. He rolls his eyes, scoffs back: “This your best effort? Your best idea for what Duke would do to make me mad enough to let him out of here?”

Audrey’s breath whooshes out of her chest. He gets it. He gets that Croatoan’s playing them.  Poorly.

As if to back up Nathan’s words the heart hounds start flinging themselves bodily against the front doors of the precinct, making the old wood shudder and creak alarmingly.

It’s a distraction technique.

Nathan ignores all that to approach Duke and TJ, hand out, palm up. He’s not angry. He’s not scared, he’s just being logical.

“You came back to Haven because _I_ asked you to.” Nathan says it with certainty. He means that much to Duke. He knows it now, recognizes it for himself the way Audrey’s seen from almost the very beginning. She’s so proud of how far he’s come.

Duke watches him warily, head cocked. He always listens to Nathan. Always, even when he’s pretending not to care. Even wrapped up in whatever web Croatoan’s spun of the aether in his veins, he’s _still_ listening to Nathan.

“You came back to help save us all. You were never working with Croatoan. He’s controlling you, Duke, we both know it. Don’t let him.” Nathan’s words are certain, sure, these are just facts he’s laying out. They say he believes in Duke, they say he thinks Duke’s stronger than this.

“Let TJ go, Duke,” Nathan asks quietly, not an order just a request and for a moment Duke’s eyes clear, his arm goes slack.

TJ senses the change and jerks free.

Nathan snatches TJ and pushes him behind himself just as Duke lunges, eyes aether black once more.

Audrey feels all the breath seep out of her body.

It wasn’t enough.

“Get out of my way, Nathan,” Duke warns, slamming his hand down on a nearby desk. His fist goes right through the solid wood, some Trouble or other he’s calling up allowing him to do that.

Nathan doesn’t flinch. He’s not afraid of pain.

“I came back to save _you_? What about when I asked you to save _me_? I was dying, Nathan. Dying. And you thought I was exaggerating?”

“Duke,” Audrey calls, aiming to distract him because she’s scared enough for both of them. Nathan may not feel it when he’s hurt, but he’s not invincible. He’s probably even desperate enough to let Duke hurt him, because he feels bad for being slow on the uptake that Duke loved him.

“Thought up a good speech for me, Audrey?” Duke snarls, rounding on her. “Going to make me see the error of my ways?”

“You already know this is wrong, Duke. I don’t need to tell you that,” she snaps because she needs him angry too, she needs him mad because mad could help him break this hold.

Mad has never been Duke’s downfall though, he’s always been able to rein it in. He does that now, expression flipping to reasonable. “Just let me take TJ and go. Croatoan wants you and Nathan alive. As long as everyone else doesn’t interfere they’re safe.” He says it like it’s the sensible, logical thing to do. Like really, this is all for her own good.

Audrey glances over her shoulder at the scared and angry faces behind her. There are at least eight members of the Guard in the room, most of them don’t like Duke on principle. She’s going to have to play this very smart before one of them decides to intervene.

“This _isn’t you_ ,” she stresses for Duke and their audience. “I know you don’t want to hurt TJ. I won’t let Croatoan make you a murderer, Duke.” She says the words very definitely, hoping they’re all listening, hoping they heard the part where Duke isn’t doing this of his own volition. Hoping no one decides to use the guns at least three of them are packing.

“Funny how you had no problem making me a murderer yourself,” Duke snaps, undermining all she’s doing to try to keep him safe. And ouch. That hurt. It’s true enough. She can see the bait in the words but she can also see how Duke could want to say them himself.

“You’re right,” she tells him, surprises him by the way he jerks back.  "I didn't let myself think about how much it would hurt you to do that, I thought- I thought, we all have to take a shot, once in a while, in the line of duty.  I thought it was just- part of the job. I forgot this wasn't ever your job."

Duke shrugs, spreads his hands in a grand gesture. “Well as you can see now it was clearly the way things are meant to be.”

His words are flip, snide almost, but Audrey knows it hurt him to be used like that. He made damn sure that she understood how much she’d violated his trust after. He wouldn’t have been so adamant if there wasn’t probably a part of him that believes that this is all he’s meant to be.

Audrey knows he’s not.

He’s so much more than some cheap pawn in this fight.

“No, Duke. This isn’t the way things are meant to be,” she corrects gently. She sees the tiny flinch he gives at her words. It gives her hope. Her Duke is in there.

“Nathan thinks so,” Duke sneers before she can get them on track. He derails the whole train by turning from her, eyes fixing on Nathan instead. “Got the tattoo to prove it. The white knight riding out to your rescue.” The smile he gives them is all teeth.

“Shouldn’t’ve done that,” Nathan says, apology in his eyes and his tone. “Was scared, scared and mad, not thinking straight.”

Duke shrugs, cold and disaffected. “Same track you always think on. Duke’s a killer, Duke’s a user,” he turns to Audrey, “Did you know I triggered his Trouble? It was my fault?” The sarcasm practically drips from his lips and Nathan flinches hard.

“Duke--”

“We were out fishing when the Coast Guard showed up to _harass_ me for the third time that month. I asked my _friend_ ,” he stresses the word with such contempt it hurts Audrey’s heart to hear it, “to talk to them, badge to badge and do you know what he did? He sided with them. He punched me. Kept punching until he realized he couldn’t feel it,” Duke’s lip curls in disgust.

“Ever since then it’s ‘Duke can’t be trusted’, ‘Duke’s a user’ but who calls who and demands help with the Troubles? Who expects who to show up and do police work or find a diving suit or soak up a living puddle of blood? Who calls you his friend to your face and then turns his back on you when you tell him you’re dying and you need his help?”

“Who really can’t be trusted? Who’s the real user, Nathan?” Duke snarls.

“Keep airing our dirty laundry all you like Duke, not letting you walk out that door,” Nathan tells him, voice deadly calm despite the embarrassment showing in thick red streaks on his face, his neck, despite the guilt hanging heavy on his shoulders, in his fists. “Want me to say I was wrong in front of everybody? Fine. I was wrong. Hear me? I was wrong.” Nathan reaches out, grabs Duke’s collar, shakes him.

Duke slaps him away but Nathan grabs him again.

“You take that and you fight him, damnit. I was wrong! Was a selfish bastard, rotten friend, but that doesn’t mean you get to give into him today.”

Duke pushes Nathan back, sends him skidding on his ass across the floor. The whole room rumbles, gasps and whispers flying, Audrey doesn’t see if anyone goes for their gun, can’t because she’s already putting herself in front of him hands held out.

“Duke!” she pleads. “Stop.”

Nathan isn’t out. He isn’t even on his feet again before he’s talking. “You’re Duke Crocker, damnit. Nobody pushes you around, remember? Remember when we were fifteen and you got detention for the entire semester because you wouldn’t let Mr. Crawford bully Kelly McDonald?”

“No one’s pushing me around, Nathan,” Duke looms over him now, tall and foreboding. “Nobody except you and Audrey and I’m tired of it. Done with it.”

Audrey slips in between them before they can have another go at each other. “You’re right, Duke,” she holds up her hands, a concession, a plea, “I have pushed you into things, I didn’t even give you a damn minute after you were out of that hospital bed before I was asking you to help the town again -- and that wasn’t fair, and you left. You didn’t take it. When I pushed you with Nix you pushed back, Duke. You didn’t let me use you to end his Trouble, you damn well fought back. You told me you were more than your Trouble, more than your family’s history and you were right. You were right, Duke,” her voice cracks. His eyebrows come together.

“Croatoan, he’s using your Trouble to control you. You’re more than just a Crocker, Duke. More than just your Trouble. You’re no one’s good dog, damnit. Fight him, Duke,” she begs. “I know you’ve been fighting a long time…”

“Don’t.” He puts up his hand. “Don’t pretend like I have all your sympathy now, Audrey.”

Audrey shrugs but she can see him now, see her Duke somewhere in there. He hates sympathy. He never wants anyone feeling sorry for him.

“If not my sympathy then how about my apology,” she offers. “When I met you, you were fighting your destiny, fighting against this very thing that’s happening today. Maybe if I hadn’t interfered you might have already won, you might’ve been far from here, free and clear of the mess of the Troubles.” She pictures the Duke she met when she first came to Haven: tan and less careworn. He’d been doing his damnedest to look after himself over anyone else and she’d taken that from him. “I pushed you into admitting that you cared, pushed you into helping me…” She thinks of weeping over his body during Anson Shumway’s Trouble, she’d been responsible for him being downtown. She knows what it’s like to carry the weight of his death. She’s not letting him down today.

Today’s Duke tilts his head and sneers. “And yet here you are, still asking things of me, Audrey. You’re telling me you shouldn’t and yet you still are.”

“I’m asking because I know you can do this, Duke.”

He sneers at her words but she keeps going. She’s not just spouting banal platitudes at him. She’s not done. She’s got evidence.

“I know because not even two days ago I saw you fight harder than you’ve ever fought in your life against your Trouble, against the very aether in your veins because Nathan needed you-” she swallows the lump in her throat, shakes her head. It wasn’t just Nathan that needed him in that cave. “Because _I_ needed you too,” she corrects, her voice cracking on the words. And there in his eyes she sees him again, another glimmer of her Duke. _He’s in there._ “I saw it, Duke, I saw how hard it was. And you did it anyway, Duke, because you’re- you’re so strong. And you care so damn much. And you’re _not_ going to let that monster control you, Duke. _We’re_ not going to let him,” she declares.

Duke has gone impossibly still, he’s listening to her now. He’s hearing her the way he heard Nathan just now through the thrall in his blood. She’s getting to him. She can see the tension in his body, muscles practically vibrating with it as he fights whatever hold Croatoan has on him.

Audrey takes a chance and steps into his personal space. He’s not some monster from the Void. She’s not going to keep her distance. This is _Duke._

“You and me right,” she puts her hand up carefully, reaches out and he lets her cup the side of his jaw, her thumb stroking his cheekbone though his eyes remain as wary as a cat’s. “Fighting our futures full time, just like you said, remember?” she asks, willing him to remember, willing him to fight this.

“You can do this Duke,” she says it again, “I’m right here with you.”

Nathan steps up to her side then, grasps Duke’s shoulder, shakes him. “‘M here too. Not letting you go anywhere,” he rumbles.

“We’re with you, Duke. We’re here,” Audrey pleads, hoping he’ll listen, hoping he’ll hear. She presses forward closer now. “We know who you are.”

“Please, Duke--” Nathan’s voice cracks on the words and something in Duke’s face softens. They’re getting to him. Audrey can feel it.

“You told me once not even your father could make you into who he wanted. You’re the only who gets to choose the kind of man you are. Who do you choose to be, Duke?” she asks and Duke’s eyes fall closed, a shudder wracks his whole body. The horrible black coating of aether flees and they are Duke’s eyes again, warm as a shot of whiskey at the end of a long day.

“I’m Duke Crocker,” he tells her, voice cracking over the words. “And I just want to go back to being a pirate,” he pleads.

Audrey gives a wet choked off laugh and launches herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck, feeling him slowly return the embrace. His whole body shudders against hers, wracked with tremors as Croatoan’s hold on him dissipates. Audrey isn’t much steadier herself; her muscles feel like overcooked spaghetti, weak and shaky with relief.

For one terrible moment Audrey imagines what might have happened if she hadn’t gotten through to Duke, can see him walking off with TJ slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

What if they hadn’t made up in the Void? What if Nathan hadn’t dared to admit what all three of them felt? What if Duke didn’t have the belief that they loved him to help him fight Croatoan’s hold? Things could have gone so differently, so very, very differently.

Nathan’s arms go around her from behind, reaching past her to snake around Duke, pulling the three of them into an embrace that’s too tight and nowhere near tight enough. She realizes she’s been hogging Duke but Nathan’s solved that problem so she’s not budging. She stands there pressed between her boys, listening to Duke’s good heart slow down, as the adrenaline fades. It feels like years later and like no time at all when they’re pulling away. She turns her head and locks eyes with Nathan. He smiles soft and tremulous. His gaze flicks over her head to Duke’s, full of the weight of the moment.

“Glad to have you back,” Nathan tells him in his understated Nathan-y way and Audrey laughs, wrapping herself around Duke again.

She shudders as the reality of the situation settles in. “Duke,” she whispers urgently, her cheek pressed to his. “This changes things. Croatoan being able to control you long distance isn’t something we planned for. We should get you out of Haven.” They’d talked about it all this morning. They’d expected this attack. They’re still expecting worse. They’d come up with a plan but now, with the near miss so close by, Audrey wants him to run, she desperately wants him safe. She almost lost him again.

“No, Audrey,” Duke answers, quiet and firm. There’s something different in his voice, something she hasn’t heard before. Or rather she has. It’s a very Nathan-y tone. Determination beyond the bounds of common sense. He sets her back away from him and glances from her to Nathan. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m done running. I’m in this fight and I’m going to make things right. I’m going to kill Croatoan.”

“Duke-” She wants to tell him that’s madness, she wants to scream at him to find his sense of self-preservation but Duke isn’t listening.

He gasps and doubles over. For a moment Audrey thinks maybe Croatoan’s gotten control of him again but then she sees it. The black blob floats beside his face before making a break for the window.

“He knows,” Duke moans. “He knows the connection’s broken, that he can’t control me anymore. He’s going to take the aether, all of it!” Even as Duke speaks a second blob breaks free, floats into the air. Audrey slaps out a hand and calls to both of them, holds them there with her will.

Now? Right now? She’s not ready, damnit!

“What can we do?” Nathan demands right on cue.

“Crockers take the Troubles with them when they die, Nathan,” Duke’s voice is so very resigned it scares Audrey. “You have to kill me to stop him.” He sounds like he means it.

“Duke, no!” Nathan recoils, horror in every line of his body. Audrey understands it. Nothing they’d talked about prepared her for actually hearing Duke say the words.

“Audrey,” Duke turns to her, pleas on his lips, fear in his eyes. “I can’t let him have all those Troubles. I choose my destiny right? Well I choose to show that bastard I’m nobody’s bitch. I won’t let him use me like this.”

“Duke, I can’t,” her voice cracks on the words. She can’t do this _now_. She wasn’t supposed to have to.

“If he takes all the aether at once it’ll kill me anyway,” Duke flinches as a third blob breaks free of his eyes.

“Nathan?” he gasps, reaching out blindly to grab at Nathan’s forearm. “We talked about this, Nathan!”

Behind them the station has gone silent, Audrey is well aware of the eyes on them at the drama playing out. The good of the town versus one man.

She knows what they expect.

“What kind of a town will we have left if he wins?” Duke demands and despite his best efforts his voice breaks. Another swirl of aether beads at the corner of his eye like a black tear drop before it pulls away to hang in the air like the three before it. Audrey slams out her hand to hold it and loses the first three. They slip through the window pane and are gone. That could be any of the Troubles the Crockers have cured over the years. Any of them. At best it could be Harry Nix’s Trouble and now Croatoan’s going to have to come find her if he wants a new organ.

“Audrey,” Duke’s long fingers wrap around her wrists. “Audrey, please,” he begs and there’s so much trust in those brown eyes, trust she doesn’t know that she deserves. Audrey turns her grip to hold Duke’s wrists in turn. A world of unsaid words passing between them. She and Duke have always understood each other and they’ve always understood what needs to be done. He trusts her to do what needs to be done right now.

Audrey’s knees tremble, her heart thunders away in her chest.

Nathan steps up behind them. Nathan wraps his arm around Duke’s collarbones and pulls him tight against him. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be this awful. They were supposed to have time to set it up. They were supposed to have a syringe to make it quick.

“S’alright,” Nathan murmurs into Duke’s ear, even as his hand covers Duke’s mouth and nose. “I got you,” he tells him.

For a moment Duke’s eyes go wide in panic. Audrey’s blood goes cold. He’s seeing the hand, the tattoo. Duke grabs Nathan’s wrist, doesn’t scrabble or try to pull it away just holds on to it and closes his eyes. _This is happening. This is really happening._ Audrey swallows hard but that doesn’t stop her throat from closing in. They sink onto the desk behind Nathan and that snaps her out of her stupor. Audrey crowds in with them, holding Duke’s free hand, stroking his forehead. Duke’s eyes are closed tight, but otherwise he’s calm, still.

“It’s okay,” she promises though she has no right, “it’s okay. You’re so brave, Duke,” she praises.

“Bravest man I ever knew,” Nathan agrees, resting his cheek against Duke’s temple. And Audrey is savagely glad for a moment that he cannot feel; cannot feel Duke’s last breath against his fingers, the scrape of his stubble, the softness of his lips on Nathan’s palm. She’s so glad that is not a memory Nathan will carry with him.

“We love you Duke,” she whispers against his hand.

It doesn’t take long and it takes forever all at the same time until Duke’s hand goes lax in hers. His callused fingers lose their grip, his head limp against Nathan’s shoulder. Gloria lets out a sob that sounds like an explosion in the quiet of the room.

Nathan carries Duke out of the bullpen. Audrey follows without a backwards glance at the gathered crowd.


	4. Audrey Counters

They head for the women’s locker room, it’s closer and less trafficked.

       Forty-seven seconds.

Audrey scoots ahead, opening doors for Nathan and his burden.

       Fifty-two seconds.

He lays Duke on the bench in between the lockers while Audrey frantically spins the dial on hers with fingers that shake.

       Sixty-five seconds.

This was such a terrible idea. How did she ever let him talk her into this?

_“It’s the only way, Audrey,” he’d said that morning, eyes so serious and intense. “We have to make Croatoan think I’m dead or he’ll just keep coming. He doesn’t know where the aether is in our world but there’s an entire bank vault in here,” Duke taps his chest sadly. “Already primed and ready for the taking.”_

_“He can’t have it. He can’t have you and he can’t have any of those Troubles,” she’d sworn._

_“This is how we keep it from him,” Duke had insisted._

And she’d believed him. It had seemed like a logical answer but now they’re here and he’s dead, at Nathan’s hands no less.

Audrey hauls out the portable defibrillator from where she stashed it earlier.

       Seventy seconds.

It’s heavy and she almost drops it as she slams to her knees beside Nathan and Duke. Audrey doesn’t know how either of them will cope if he doesn’t come back from this.

Heart in her throat she presses the charge while Nathan rucks up Duke’s shirt, exposing the now familiar tattoos.

       Seventy-five.

       Seventy-six.

       Seventy-seven.

       Seventy--

The machine beeps and Audrey locks eyes with Nathan. He nods. She takes a deep breath. “Clear,” she tells Nathan, like she’s fucking House M.D. or something, and shocks Duke. His body jerks with the surge, but otherwise doesn’t move.

“C’mon, Duke,” She curses, pressing charge again. She lays a hand on his chest but there’s nothing.

       Eighty-five.

“Not the time to be stubborn,” Nathan grouses as he resumes CPR breathing.

_“Has to be this way. He’s got to be spying on us somehow. Everyone in The Guard knows how I’m supposed to die. They’d probably draw straws to be the one who gets to do it,” Duke had smiled wryly. “This way they’ll all believe it’s real.”_

_“That’s a lot to put on Nathan,” Audrey protested but Nathan’s hand covered hers, cupped his fingers around her own._

_“I can do it,” he told Duke then, voice steady._

Nathan’s hands are shaking now as he pinches Duke’s nose shut, breathes for him.

       Ninenty-nine seconds.

_“Of course you can. You’ve been threatening to since we were kids after all,” Duke teased but his heart wasn’t in the words and Nathan didn’t laugh or smile or joke it off._

_“Meant it a few times,” he said gruffly. “Don’t anymore. Shouldn’t have the times I did. Wasn’t thinking.”_

_“Nate…” Duke had said looking touched, in the language of Wuornos that was a four page flowery apology and they both knew it._

_“No. Listen. Never met anyone as loyal as you, Duke. You always come back. Even now, with everything all shot to hell, you could leave but you don’t. You won’t.”_

_“I’m not in it to save Haven, Nathan. I’m not like you or Audrey, I don’t owe this town a damn thing. But you and Audrey… You two, you… if I left you’d probably get your fool selves killed,” Duke shook his head, like there was too much emotion clouding his thoughts._

_Audrey had understood the feeling._

_“That’s bullshit, Duke. You wouldn’t just leave the town to hang even if we weren’t here.”_

       One hundred and eight

Audrey can feel her pulse in her temple, ears reaching for the beep that the machine is ready, searching for the sound of approaching footsteps saying they’re about to be found out.

       One hundred and twenty.

It’s been two minutes already. Two minutes. Come on. Come on.

The machine beeps. It’s so loud. She prays no one can hear it outside the room.

       One hundred and thirty-four.

“Clear,” she tells Nathan, zapping Duke again.

_“Know your secret now. You’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known and you fight so hard to hide it. You gave me that bust when we were twenty-two and I told you I was thinking of quitting the force. You hated me being a cop. Hated it! But you handed me Nick McGinnis practically on a platter and you never let me know it was you.”_

_“I knew I’d regret telling you that story,” Duke grumbled but Nathan plowed on._

_“You care,” Nathan had taunted him and Duke laughed._

_“Shut up,” he protested, slapping a hand over Nathan’s mouth. Nathan laughed and dodged his fingers._

_“You care and you hate showing it.”_

_“Pot, this is kettle,” Duke mimed putting a phone to his ear._

_Nathan smiled, pulled Duke’s hand away from his ear, shaking his head in wonder. “I was such a damn fool, let you trick me like you tricked the rest of the town, let the Chief and Vince and Dave and the rest of the town idiots change what I thought I knew about you.”_

_“Nate, I’m not some squeaky clean boyscout-”_

_“No, but you’re also not the unreliable, selfish jerk who only looks out for himself that you got painted as either. You care, Duke. You care so much you’d go into the Void and let yourself explode alone rather than risk infecting a town that didn’t give a shit about you. You care so much you’re here helping to fight Croatoan when he could make your worst nightmare come true. You’re just as much a hero as Parker or I am.”_

_Duke had torn his gaze away and Nathan had turned to Audrey for back up._

_“Don’t look at me, I’ve been saying that all along,” Audrey had joked._

_She had. She’d known Duke had such a good heart under all that bluster. She’d never doubted it._

_“But this… what you’re suggesting, this is too much, Duke,” Nathan had told him, voice deadly serious. “Should leave. Should run. Shouldn’t take the risk. We kill you and something goes wrong…”_

_“Then at least I’ll die knowing I stuck it to Croatoan. I won’t let him use me again, Nathan. This isn’t for you or Audrey or Haven, it’s for me. I need him to think I’m dead and I need to make sure that he gets dead after that.”_

Audrey presses her ear to his chest, all is quiet for a moment that stretches out longer and longer.

       One hundred and thirty-nine.

       One hundred and forty.

       One hundred and forty-one.

“Come on, Duke,” she mutters then jerks back as the unnatural stillness is filled with the sudden thunder of Duke’s good heart.

       One hundred and forty-two.

She gasps and presses her ear back to his chest as Nathan squeezes her shoulder. Duke’s heart thumps, gaining rhythm and then Duke gasps in a breath of his own, lurching up, dislodging Audrey.

He presses a hand to his chest, staring wildly from one to the other as he catches his breath two minutes and twenty-two seconds after losing it.

“Whose stupid plan was this?” is the first thing that comes out of his mouth when he can speak again.

Audrey’s answering laugh is closer to a sob, holding on like the world is ending. For a little while it did. Duke strokes her back with those big gentle hands of his and eventually she pulls away but she can’t go far. She settles for sitting back on her heels and smoothing his shirt into place, blinking the wetness from her lashes. Duke glances over his shoulder at Nathan and waggles his eyebrows.

“What, no hug from you?” he queries  his voice rough like gravel grinding under tires. It sounds like it hurts to talk and his words are flip but there’s genuine question in his voice.

Nathan’s shoulders hunch further forward, “I didn’t…” he sticks his hands deeper in the pockets of his jeans. “Wasn’t sure you’d want…”

Duke rolls his eyes and lurches to his feet to grab Nathan by the back of his neck, pulling him in to rest forehead to forehead. “Please,” Duke says, his voice rasps over the words, “you always said you were going to kill me yourself. How could I hold that against you?”

Audrey laughs but Nathan doesn’t. He makes a horrible sound deep in his throat and grabs on to Duke like a drowning man holds a life preserver. He buries his face in the other man’s shoulder and clings, that’s the only word for it, to Duke. Duke rocks into Nathan’s embrace so Nathan knows he’s holding on too. They sway together for long moments, Nathan stays very, very quiet, and Audrey realizes he’s listening to Duke’s breathing, timing his own to match it.

Audrey stands and runs a soothing hand up Nathan’s neck, into his hair and he reaches out an arm, dragging her into the embrace so the three of them are curled around each other, safe and close when it could have been so much worse. So much worse.

“Don’t do that again,” Nathan orders.

“I will try my best not to,” Duke agrees.

“I won’t do that again either,” Nathan tells him, voice quiet and grim and vehement.

“Be glad if you don’t,” Duke tries to joke but doesn’t quite get the tone right. He settles for rocking them some more.

_“Why do we have to actually kill you then? Why not just pretend?” Nathan had demanded and it was a good question. Duke’s plan was more than a little drastic. There had to be a good reason for it._

_“He can sense you,” Audrey answered for Duke. “You can tell, can’t you?”_

_Duke had nodded. “He can sense me somehow. If I’m dead I’m hoping he’ll lose that connection so when you two bring me back, and I’m really hoping you will,” he flashed them a smile that was full of so much false bravado it set Audrey’s teeth on edge, “I’ll be able to fly under his radar.”_

_“Hope isn’t enough,” Nathan declared._

_“You’re right. And I think I have just the Trouble,” Audrey had grabbed Vince’s list from the night stand, running her finger down it til she found the name she was looking for. Roger Meijer._

After another minute or so they untangle, all of them aware of how dangerous it is for Duke to stay here now. Audrey gets Roger Meijer from Interrogation Room C where he’s been waiting. Their theory is that with Meijer around Croatoan won’t be able to sense Duke.

She can see Duke and Nathan through the glass panel in the door when she comes back with Roger and wow that’s dangerous. If she can spot them anyone else could have come by.

She doesn’t barge in though because Duke’s got his serious face on so she hangs back. “Give them a minute,” she tells Roger, backtracking to the corner. She wants to give them their moment of privacy but she can’t actually look away.

They’re sitting side by side on the bench, pressed hip to hip against each other. Nathan’s bent over his knees, head in his hands. Duke’s shoulders are practically at his ears, discomfort and guilt all but radiating off him.

“About what I said in the bullpen, Nate…” she reads Duke’s lips.

Nathan looks up, shakes his head. “Don’t. Doesn’t matter. All that matters is--”

“I’m sorry, Nathan,” Duke cuts him off and he looks so devastated that he’s hurt Nathan it makes Audrey’s heart clench.

Nathan’s eyes go soft in response. “Nothin to be sorry for,” Audrey reads, “was the truth.”

Duke’s face twists as he visibly fights for the right way to reply. He settles on “Wasn’t the time or place.”

Nathan breaks into a grin, blue eyes lighting as he knocks his shoulder into Duke’s. “There’s a convenient time for possession?”

Duke laughs too, their smiles are inches away from each other and Audrey is suddenly glad she’s got the wall at her back because her knees are trembling from the relief crashing over her. Duke’s still with them. She closes her eyes and rests her head against the brick, sucking in a long, deep breath. They haven’t lost him.

She hopes Croatoan caught the show they gave out there; he must be possessing someone to have as much inside information as he has. When it isn’t Duke she’s betting it was one of the people they left out there. It’s impossible to know who until that person steps forward and announces they’re missing time. Since they haven’t mentioned the idea of missing time to anyone but Dwight and Gloria, Audrey doesn’t know that anyone will notice but she doesn’t want to give up the clue to let Croatoan know they know he’s watching. And that’s not a complicated thought at all, she thinks with a laugh at herself.

Audrey takes a deep breath and pushes off the wall. She knocks on the door before she goes back in, pointedly not glancing in the window to give them their private moment. They deserve it.

They’re braced when she walks in but relax when they realize it’s her until Nathan spots Roger behind her. His cop face slams down into place, chin firming, eyes going steely blue. Duke straightens up, body tense again. The time for softness is over.

The plan is to try and locate Croatoan’s hideout now that he thinks Duke is dead. Things can’t keep going as they have been. She’s done letting Croatoan amass his army and hurt the people of Haven. She’s taking the fight to him. Audrey and Nathan are supposed to go out the front doors, Duke and Roger out the back where they hopefully won’t be seen.

Duke and Roger are the first to leave. Audrey lets Roger walk out the door and grabs Duke by the back of his shirt. She kisses him, hard. Doesn’t beg him to be safe. Doesn’t cry hysterically. She doesn’t say a word because her throat’s closed in and she can’t. She forces her fingers to uncurl from his shirt, smooths down the front and nods tightly.

Duke gives her a soft, knowing look, saving her again from having to figure out what to say. He gets it. He and Nathan exchange a look, one of their silent conversations and then Duke is gone, out the door.

Audrey takes a breath and steels her spine. Croatoan’s going to bleed for what he’s done.

\-----

When Audrey and Nathan return to the main room of the station Dwight and Gloria are talking quietly by the kitchen.

“Audrey…” Gloria spots them first, she starts to speak but can’t finish.

Audrey can’t bear it either. She only nods sharply to Gloria then turns to Dwight. “I need you to take over for me,” she tells him. “Nathan and I are going to hunt down Croatoan.”

Dwight looks like he wants to say something else but looks at her face and thinks better. He nods. ”You got it,” he agrees.

Audrey nods, relieved. “Thanks, Dwight,” she says and means it. She knows Dwight must have taken care of the heart hounds out there as there’s no sound of them anymore. She knows the town is in good hands with him in charge.

“Nathan,” Dwight offers before they can leave, “I’m sorry about Duke,” he says gently.

Nathan’s nod is clipped, he makes no other answer just strides out the door, the muscle in his jaw working overtime.

“Be ready when we get back,” Audrey tells Dwight, her face gone hard. “We’re taking this bastard down when we find him.”

Dwight gives her a grim nod.


	5. A Brief Respite

The rest of the day feels fragile, like they’ve stolen something and any minute now the peace will be shattered-- Croatoan will realize Duke is alive, more monsters will attack, something. Even the air feels like it’s holding its breath. The aether clouds are gone but the world is still and strangely silent. The animals have gone to ground with the Void beasts here, even the birds are scarce to be seen.

They meet up with Duke and Roger out near the warehouses on the edge of town. When they do Nathan kisses Duke like they’ve been apart for years. Audrey doesn’t blame him, she isn’t the one with the Guard symbol inked onto her forearm. She can’t imagine how it must have felt to Nathan when she knows how many ways things could have gone wrong, when Duke might have stayed dead.

They spend the afternoon and late into the evening hunting through Nathan’s list of possible places Croatoan might be using as a base on the south-east side of town until it’s too dark and they’re too tired.

They need to find him. They can’t hide Duke forever.

They also desperately need to get rid of Roger. Now that he’s got a captive audience who are aware he exists he won’t shut up. He’s got opinions on everything, from where they’re looking for Croatoan to how much sugar Nathan puts in his coffee. Even Duke is close to losing his patience with the man by the time they’re back at Nathan’s little yellow house. The only thing that’s keeping Audrey from yelling at him is the sad fact that he reminds her of Dave a little. The Teagues are obnoxious but they were good to her when she first came to town. She genuinely liked Dave.

They set Roger up in the guest room, a whole floor away from them when they get back to Nathan’s house and Audrey hopes he’s tired enough he won’t come downstairs any time soon.

\-----

While Nathan’s upstairs setting Roger up with the DVD player Duke turns to Audrey over the dishes they’re washing. She hates doing the dishes ordinarily but right now it’s a much needed bubble of normalcy. Duke opens his mouth when they’re on the last dish, closes it again looking down at the sink and then looks back at her from under his lashes.

Audrey puts down the sponge and waits for him.

Duke sighs and dries his hands. “I’m going to say something and it’s going to use up all my sincerity for the next month so you can’t make a joke back.”

Even now, hours later his voice still sounds like it hurts coming out. Audrey longs to lay her hands over his throat and soothe away the pain but she can’t. Even if she could he wouldn’t want the fussing. Instead she focuses on his words. She arches an eyebrow at the demand but Duke stays silent staring her down. Fine, he has a point. She’s not very good at sincerity either.

She sighs and dries her own hands. “Okay,” she agrees.

Duke nods, scratches his head, looks around the kitchen for a moment before his shoulders go up and down.

“Thank you,” is what he says eventually, brief and sincere, making Audrey’s eyes well up with tears.

“Duke--” she says but he cuts her off with a kiss, soft and full of gratitude, his fingers light as feathers on her jaw. It’s such a tender kiss it makes Audrey shiver all the way down to her toes, goosebumps popping out on her arms at the emotion in it.

When they pull apart she tries again, “Duke...” is all she gets out around the lump in her throat.

Duke smiles at her, a real one this time, wry and fond and a little bit _you should know better_.

“But you got one thing wrong,” he tells her before she can actually find any words.

Audrey furrows her brow, not sure what he means but willing to hear him out.

“I let you down when I left,” he says, the evening light shining in from outside limning the side of his face in blue shadows.

“Duke, no,” she grabs his hands, it doesn’t matter. None of that matters now.

Duke squeezes her fingers but keeps talking.  “You thought I was taking the easy way out but Audrey, walking away from you and Nathan was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he swears, quick brown eyes so earnest it tugs at her heart.

She doesn’t know how to respond to that so she just listens and the words tumble out like he’s been holding them back forever, like he needed to say them.

“I was angry at Nathan, at Mara, at you,” Audrey tries to keep back the flinch, he’d had every right to be mad at her, “hell at Haven and the universe in general,” he flings out a hand, making a vague gesture to encompass it all, but his eyes never leave hers, brown and intent. He needs her to hear him so she’ll listen. “But that wasn’t why I left. I left because I thought it was the best thing for everyone. Everything I’d done to try and help backfired, Audrey. I couldn’t protect you from going into the Barn. I couldn’t save Jennifer,” he blinks hard and finally looks away and her heart twists.

She can see he forces his gaze back to hers. Meets her eyes square when he says “I tried so hard to manage Mara and she played me like a rich tourist on the strip,” the loathing in his voice is only half directed at Mara and Audrey longs to tell him it wasn’t his fault but he needs to get this out and she doesn’t think he will if she interrupts. “I couldn’t even keep the Troubles from getting free. Everything I touched turned to ash, Audrey. I’m not a hero—” a sound of protest escapes her throat but he shakes his head, keeps talking right over her. “I thought you’d solve the fog wall Trouble. I didn’t think things would disintegrate into some post-apocalyptic dystopian novel.”

Audrey searches his gaze. He’s telling the truth. Hell, she thought they’d pull it back for days after the wall went up herself. The Troubles spiraled out of control in ways that she’d never experienced, one Trouble triggering more and more. She’d only realized just how badly off they were when they evacuated everyone to the shelters and that had been days after Duke left.

He didn’t leave to save himself, he left to save them. She hates that thought. She hates it more than he left to avoid having to deal with the Troubles that had spouted out of him.

“You help me,” she tells him quietly, fiercely, she reaches out to squeeze his hand. “Just by being here and being you, you help me. You leaving? That could never help me, Duke.” She squeezes his fingers again as he looks away, too many emotions in his eyes for her to see, she supposes. Duke won’t accept anything less than the whole truth here so she gives him it. “I was so mad when you left - and to be honest a little jealous,” she confesses. “If I had to stay and solve all these Troubles after five hundred years and hundreds of them who the hell were you to disappear after a couple dozen new ones.” Audrey shakes her head. “I know that’s not fair but it’s how I felt.”

Duke nods, gives her that fake smile that he tries when he’s really upset by something and covering for it. It hurts her heart to see it.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

All the anger she’d harbored disappears with those words. “I’m sorry too,” she confesses, heart twisting with guilt and regret, “I didn’t even consider how you were feeling when you woke up. I didn’t know you were going to go into the Void…”

Duke looks away. _I won’t live like that_ echoes in her ears. Audrey’s heart thumps painfully in her chest. They snatched him back from that today by their fingernails, she knows.

“But know this, Duke Crocker, you’ve saved me a dozen times over, more times than either of us probably realized just by being you, by being here, by being my friend. You’ve saved Nathan more than that. You are absolutely a hero whether this godforsaken town acknowledges it or not. Think of what you’ve done in the last four days alone, Duke! We wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t gone into the Void with us.” She puts her hand on the side of his face, he’s so tense, ready to bolt, so at a loss with what to do with these few, small, paltry kind words. Audrey hates that. She hates that he receives so few thanks, so little acknowledgement of all that he does and it’s partly her fault. She’s taken him for granted. She’s going to do better.

“I don’t…” he takes a shuddery breath, leaning into her palm. “I don’t want to let you down again, Audrey,” he rasps, raw and vulnerable and aching, “but I don’t know that I can live up to the person you think I am.” He closes his eyes, like he can’t bear to see her expression.

Audrey puts her free hand on the other side of his face and pulls him down to press her forehead against his. “You already are,” she promises.

Duke holds his breath for a long moment before letting it out slowly, so clearly trying to get a hold of himself. Audrey stays still, waits to see what he’ll do. His eyes flutter open and he kisses her, gentle and tender and so grateful it puts a lump in her throat.

They pull away to find Nathan standing in the doorway, eyes soft, face open. He smiles when he sees them look at him.

“Not gonna fly into a jealous rage,” he drawls at something he must see on their faces.

Audrey laughs and holds out her hand to him. Duke holds out one too and they draw him into their embrace.

“t’s nice,” he says when he’s wrapped around them. “Like seeing you with each other, kinda surprised about that,” he admits with a blush.

Audrey reaches out and traces the side of his face, she loves this man, so much. Nathan shivers and leans into her hand.

They retreat to the bedroom. They lock the doors and close the curtains, turn out the lights but leave the lamp. Nathan lights the scented candles on the dresser.

“Planning on seducing us, Nate?” Duke teases but is utterly unprepared for Nathan to frame his face and kiss him like yeah, that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing. Duke fumbles for a moment and then gets his hands on Nathan’s waist. They kiss in the candle light for long, slow moments. Nathan’s eyes are open and he keeps pulling away to check in with Duke whose eyes are closed, his face is open and his eyes are a little dazed each time they flutter open to meet Nathan’s gaze.

Audrey grins and lays on the bed, propping her head up with her hand to better enjoy the view.

Nathan pulls away again, his face working hard against some emotion. When Duke opens his eyes he speaks. “Don’t-” Nathan’s voice breaks, and Audrey’s heart clenches, all the amusement draining out of her as he continues “don’t ask me to do that again,” he orders, shaking Duke by the back of the neck.

Audrey’s eyes burn with sudden tears at his words. She sits up again, no longer amused or content to watch. He’s right. Today could have gone so differently.

“Nate-” Duke begins but Audrey cuts him off.

“I am officially removing it from the list of acceptable plans,” she declares, rising off the bed to join them. She slides her arms around them both, slips her palm under the edge of Nathan’s t-shirt so it rests on the bare skin of the small of his back. He shivers and then leans back into the contact.

Duke looks at them fond and exasperated.

Before he can do anything else Nathan starts unbuttoning Duke’s shirt, fingers flicking them free one by one. Duke stands there bemused and Audrey rises on her toes to kiss him herself, trying hard to keep the leftover tears and desperation out of the kiss. Today could have gone so different.

Her fingers dig into Duke’s biceps when she grabs hold of him to steady herself and she can’t- can’t force herself to loosen her grip because he’s here and alive under her hands. She can feel his pulse throbbing against her palm and she realizes Duke might not be as calm about things as he’s pretending to be. He shouldn't be. He died today. He died--

Behind her Nathan drags the shirt down Duke’s arms and she’s forced to let go, a half sob escaping her throat as she steps back, startling them all.

Nathan and Duke both look at her with something akin to horror and Audrey can’t, she can’t bear that. She can’t deal with the roiling mass of emotions boiling in her chest. She goes up on her toes and kisses Duke again, harder now, fierce, like she can erase the whole damn afternoon if she kisses him hard enough.

Duke’s hands come up and cup her face and pull her back. “Easy, Audrey,” he breathes out kissing her temple and her eyelids.

“Come d-” she gasps, “come down here. You’re too tall,” she complains and he laughs gentle and warm. Nathan’s hands come around her waist, boosting her up so she has no choice but to wrap her arms around Duke’s broad shoulders, wrap her legs around his waist and suddenly it’s all too obvious how he got the handprints on his back. Audrey chokes back this sob. He shouldn’t have to hear it, doesn’t need to know she knows. She kisses him and runs her hands over every inch of warm, alive, skin that she can. She can’t take the marks away but she can give him new memories, better memories than whatever poison he shared with Mara.

She slows down, kisses him softer, gentler, takes the time to nuzzle his throat and his temple. She kisses his ear and sucks on the lobe just like Nathan taught her to, making him groan and shudder appreciatively. But through it all Duke never loses his hold on her, one strong arm around her back, the other bracing her thigh. He kisses her back so soft and tender, so carefully it makes her heart hurt.

Behind them Nathan makes a sound, low and deep in his chest and Audrey can’t see his face well enough but Duke’s hand shifts against her sweatshirt and he tugs so that now Nathan is pressed against her back. Duke’s arm leaves her to loop around him, anchoring him in their embrace. Audrey’s pinned between them now and it should be overwhelming, she should feel surrounded, it should feel like too much but it’s not. It’s not. It feels... She feels safe. She feels loved. Her breathing hitches and she has to pull away from Duke. She buries her face in the side of his neck, worrying the skin there with gentle love bites. He tastes salty under her tongue like dried sweat and behind his ear, the faintest hint of shampoo.

Over her shoulder Duke tugs Nathan in so they’re kissing right beside her ear, she can hear the gasps and the murmurs and their breathing going heavier. Audrey squirms between them, rubbing against Duke’s erection through their jeans. That’s not doing much for Nathan so Audrey flails a hand back, rucks up his shirt. He gets the idea and stops kissing Duke to peel it over his head, she hears it plop to the floor.

Audrey takes advantage of their break to go back to kissing Duke and when Nathan presses back in, he doesn’t miss a beat. He sweeps her hair to one side and starts dropping kisses along the back of her neck, distracting her, lips warm and soft, sending sparks of electricity down her spine, making her squirm again. Duke’s fingers hitch higher on her thigh to compensate and Audrey gasps into the kiss as his fingers press into the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. There’s mischief on Duke’s lips, she can feel it in their kiss, he shifts his grip so his palm lands just below the curve of her ass, his fingers flexing so close to where they’d actually do some good. Audrey lets her head drop back and pants into the air between the three of them.

Nathan’s hands slide in between them to undo the zip on her hoodie while he and Duke kiss up opposite sides of her neck. It’s, Audrey fights for breath, it’s a lot. Her heart’s pounding away in her chest in the good way for the first time today. Nathan’s hands are warm and solid, sliding under the hem of her t shirt, trailing up her ribcage. He’s touching Duke too, though maybe he doesn’t know it - the knuckles of his hands are dragging along Duke’s torso while his fingertips are tracing the band of her bra.

“Bed,” she orders on a gasp.

Duke walks them over, she expects him to drop her with a bounce, expects a smart aleck comment from him or a dirty joke, or something. He lays her down gently, crawling over her to bracket her head with his elbows and kisses her so soft it takes her breath away. He pulls back to look her in the eyes and Audrey sees, it’s hitting him now. He was dead. For two minutes and twenty-two seconds he was dead.

Audrey leans up and captures his mouth in a kiss, pulling at her hoodie, tugging blindly at the sleeves. Nathan helps her, tugging the cuffs down over her hands. Duke lets her up but he doesn’t stop kissing her, tugs her t shirt over her head so it ruffles her hair and tosses it off the bed. He smooths her hair away from her face while Nathan kisses her shoulders and undoes her bra. Audrey tosses that away too, her hands working at the fly of her jeans. Nathan and Duke close their hands over the same breast and they all break away to laugh, shaky but genuine.

In the candlelight Duke’s eyes are full of flames reflecting in the brown of his irises. He trails just one finger over the curve of her breast, the knuckle catches on her nipple and they all watch as it hardens in front of their eyes. Audrey shudders and leans her head back against Nathan’s shoulder. She watches as Duke licks his lips and inhales sharply, it keeps her distracted until Nathan’s thumb flicks over the other breast, she gasps and arches into it, watching his thumb swirling the nipple into a tight pink peak, sending those sparks shooting right down to her core.

Duke’s fingers move in tandem with Nathan’s and Audrey throws her head back, gasping and squirming against Nathan’s bare chest. He can feel that, she knows. He nips her earlobe to let her know he appreciates her efforts. She can imagine how it feels, the slide of her hair against his ear, the heat of her breath over his cheek, her weight pressing him down into the mattress. She hopes it keeps him as distracted as she is.

“Tell me what you want, Audrey,” Duke asks, voice low and full of the gravel of arousal. He pinches her nipple and then soothes away the sting with his thumb. “What do you want?” he asks, slowly.

“You,” Audrey answers, without thought. She reaches her arms out, tugging him into her. “You,” she repeats, his bare chest crushing her breasts, his skin’s so warm and she can feel his heart beating against hers when she knows exactly what it’s like when there’s no heartbeat in his chest.

Audrey seals her lips to his and pushes his shirt off his shoulders and tosses it off the bed. Her fingers go to undo the fly of his pants while she can feel Nathan’s making quick work of her own. Duke’s erection springs out of the opening of his jeans, proud and tall and hard. Audrey jacks him once, twice while Duke swears then she abandons it to pulls his jeans down his hips. Duke kicks them off the bed and turns to help Nathan tug her jeans and underwear down in one go. Audrey almost kicks him in the head in her haste to get rid of the pants. Duke grabs her ankle and kisses his way up her shin, but Audrey’s having none of that.

“Come-” she gasps, “come here,” she orders, tugging at his shoulders so he ends up on all fours leaning over her where she’s laying between Nathan’s legs. She can feel the rough denim of Nathan’s jeans against her lower back, the soft cotton of their sheets where her heels are braced.

Duke’s gaze bores into hers, dark and hesitant. She traces a thumb across his brow, down his nose, over his lips, feels his breath puff out on her skin.

“Duke, please,” she asks.

“What do you want, Audrey?” he asks again.

Audrey opens her mouth but finds she can’t speak past the lump in her throat.

It’s Nathan who answers. “You,” Nathan’s voice is rough with arousal, the words bitten off. “She needs you,” he answers for her and Audrey turns and kisses him because he’s right. She does. She breaks the kiss to find Duke studying them, surprise and something much softer on his face.

“I just… Duke-” her voice cracks on his name, eyes burning again. “I want _you_ ,” she gives the same answer, cupping his jaw and kissing him, infusing the kiss with all the words she can’t say without crying tonight. She needs him close. Needs to feel him. Needs to know that they didn’t lose him after all.

She can feel his arms trembling with the tension of holding himself up. She strokes her hands down his neck, along his arms, down to his waist, runs them up his back. He arches into her touch, grinding himself against her hip. So close to where she wants him. She runs her hands down his back, his skin’s so warm and he’s safe. He’s here with them. They saved him. The whole ruse was worth it. He’s safe tonight. She feels tears prick at the back of her eyes again and blinks them away quickly. She doesn’t want them now.

She runs her hands down to his hips, traces her thumbs over the stark prominence of his hipbones, gives them a tug but Duke resists.

“Audrey-” Duke’s voice is strained, she opens her eyes to find him gazing down at her helplessly. “What about-”

“IUD,” she growls at him, and watches his face bloom with relief and then awe.

He strokes a hand down her cheek, so damn gentle. Audrey nips the pad of his finger and reaches between them to take his hardness in hand, rubbing the tip through her folds making them both hiss. She’s slick, swollen already and they’ve hardly touched her. Her heart is thundering in her chest and throbbing in her clit.

She lines Duke up and nods at his questioning face. Yes, she wants this, now. They’ve never- they’ve never-

Duke thrusts inside, slow and gentle like he’s been all night and tears spring back into her eyes. He drags his shaft all the way out, and then thrusts back in again, slow and steady, letting her get used to him, his girth and his size and Audrey whines at the stretch, at how full she feels, at the way he grinds his pubic bone against her clit on the upstroke.

She closes her eyes against the tears. They haven’t- they’ve never done this before.

He could’ve died and they might never have-

Audrey pulls him down to her so he’s covering her, pressing her into Nathan, kissing him while he thrusts slow and steady, she wants to tell him to go fast, tell him to go harder and harder but she doesn’t want this to end. She grabs Nathan’s hand, pulls it down to where they’re joined and he gets the idea, he finds her clit by touch alone, fingers sliding in her slick to circle and circle and circle her clit just so, making her keen. She’s not the only one making noise. Duke lets out a curse, feeling Nathan’s fingers brushing against him has his hips stuttering. He clenches his jaw and his eyes shut. Audrey wants to ask if Nathan can tell that the backs of his fingers are touching Duke while the pads circle and circle and circle her clit, igniting the flames Duke’s pressing into her, but she doesn’t dare. She won’t rock the fragile balance they’ve found tonight.

Nathan’s free hand finds Duke’s hip and he helps Duke to thrust into her. They don’t speed up, Duke doesn’t even pull out all the way, he just rocks his hips into hers, slow and solid thrusts. Nathan’s fingers keep moving with the same rhythm over her clit. Duke rests his forehead against hers, they don’t kiss but they breath each other’s breaths and it’s more intimate in a way, sucking in the same oxygen. Audrey knows, knows just how goddamn lucky they are today didn’t go any differently. But she doesn’t want to think about that right now, they’re here, they’re all three of them here and Duke is inside her and Nathan is behind her and Audrey reaches for the orgasm, tensing her stomach and rocking up to meet Duke’s thrusts and Nathan’s fingers. It feels slow and it also takes no time at all until she’s panting and and writhing at each stroke, the tension in her body building tighter and tighter, her mind blissfully blank, nothing registering but the feel of her boys, until with one last circle, one last thrust she comes without warning on a startled gasp.

Duke holds still while she clenches around him, Nathan’s fingers go flat and quiet and she knows he’s concentrating on feeling the flutters of her orgasm against them. She can feel his cock hard and hot through his jeans. Audrey can’t do anything about that right now, she just- just needs to lay still for a minute, her breathing and heart rate slowly returning to normal.

Duke pulls out, his cock shiny with her slick in the candle light, he flops onto his back and visibly makes an effort to control his breathing. Audrey should- should do something about that, help him out but she just… She needs a minute.

Nathan slips out from behind her, jostling her. He goes to his knees, his brow furrowed, eyes intense as he surveys Duke looking rumpled and well fucked as he pants on the pale sheets.

“Take em off,” Duke demands of Nathan from where he’s sprawled, his voice startles them both. “I want to see you,” he rasps and Audrey can see the effect those words have on Nathan. See the shudder that sends through him.

Nathan strips, pants and underwear in one swoop, crawling back onto the bed entirely heedless of his nakedness. He crawls over Duke with the single minded determination of a lion stalking its prey. Duke gasps as he kisses his way up his body, lets him drop sucking kisses that bloom into bruises before their eyes, flushed red even in the dim light of the lamp. Nathan stops his ascent at a spot on the right side of Duke’s collarbones, spends long moments lavishing it with attention, making Duke groan and writhe. He calls Nathan’s name breathless and turned on, threading his fingers into Nathan’s hair and pulling him further up the bed so he can kiss him for real.

Nathan and Duke are so evenly matched, they’re pressed hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder as Duke kisses him with such care and reverence. It puts a lump in her throat that Nathan can’t feel it. Audrey watches them, rocking their hips together, thrusts that make the bed rock and squeak, harder and faster than before.

Duke turns on his side so Nathan’s flat on the mattress. He gets a big hand around Nathan’s cock and jacks him, slow and firm.

“Look at you,” he breathes against Nathan’s temple. “So hard for us,” Duke adds a twist to his wrist. “Did you like watching us?” he asks Nathan, “we liked you watching us,” Duke’s hand goes up and down, up and down. “I almost came when you got your fingers on Audrey’s clit,” he confesses, swirling his thumb around Nathan’s head.

Nathan makes an incoherent noise, his eyes are blazing, intensely focused on Duke’s hand on his body. His breathing is coming short and sharp and Audrey hopes he can hear it too.

“Your fingers brushed my cock each time I pulled out, Nate, and it was...” Duke nuzzles Nathan, drags his nose against his cheek. “It was a lot, Nate. Knowing it was both of you, both of you touching me at the same time...” Audrey knows Duke’s spinning his words out for Nathan, talking him to orgasm as much as touching him but she hears the truth in them nevertheless, sees the awe on his face that Nathan probably misses because he’s staring at Duke’s hand. She shudders, aftershocks tracing their way through her body. It was a lot. It was a lot, a lot.

“Did you like hearing us?” Duke’s still talking, “that slick slap, slap, slap, always gets me going. Audrey’s breathy little moans though,” Duke swirls his thumb around the tip, hisses out his breath through his teeth.

“I wasn’t the only one making noise,” Audrey teases, on her side now, watching with interest.

“How could I not?” Duke asks, his gaze as it flicks over hers is amused, fond, appreciative.

Nathan makes a choked off noise, and gets his hands on Duke’s shoulders, drags him on top and Audrey knows, knows their cocks are lined up against each other.

“Watched you,” Nathan grunts out beneath him, hands on Duke’s hips now, rocking him at the pace he wants. “Saw your face when you were inside Audrey. Two of you, never did that before,” Nathan tells him, surprising Audrey with how closely his thoughts echoed her own. His hands keep dragging Duke’s hips down firm, steady. Audrey wonders what it feels like for Duke, the slide and drag of his cock along Nathan’s. “You coulda died and you’d’a never…” Nathan breaks off here, kisses Duke to cover for the emotions running rampant across his face.

His hands pull at Duke’s hips, faster, harder, the bed’s squeaking now with each thrust.

“Didn’t--” Nathan’s fingers flex on Duke’s hips. “wasn’t sure you’d want me touching you after--” Audrey’s heart twists in her chest.

“I asked, Nathan,” Duke cuts him off, “I asked you to-” he growls unable to finish his sentence. “Why would I-.” Duke huffs out a breath. “You saved me damnit,” he insists, frustration clear on his face. “Didn’t have to. Was a big risky move. You didn’t have to bring me back. Probably a bigger risk to do--”

It’s Nathan’s turn to cut Duke off. He lunges off the bed and kisses Duke into silence, fierce and frantic, his fingers are digging into Duke’s hips and the whole bed is shaking as Nathan bucks up against him.

“Don’t say that,” Nathan orders into their kiss apparently the words need to be said but he can’t bear to stop kissing Duke to say them. He growls the words right into Duke’s mouth. “Don’t say we shouldn’t’ve brought you back, I can’t-”

“Hey,” Duke presses on Nathan’s shoulders, but Nathan doesn’t let go, he keeps his hands on Duke’s hips, faster and faster now but Duke’s face has gone from aroused to concerned.  “Nate,” he calls, urgent and solemn, “Nate stop.”

Nathan does, he lets go of Duke, lets him sit up. Duke doesn’t go far, he stays straddling Nathan’s hips. Audrey can see Nathan’s only half hard now, erection flagging, his chest heaving with emotion not arousal. There are tears sparkling in his eyes and Audrey’s heart twists again.

Duke leans down and kisses him, short and soft, drops his forehead to rest against Nathan’s. “I’m sorry, okay?” he asks

“Don’t say that again,” Nathan demands, eyes closed against the emotion in his voice. “Don’t ever think that. Whatever the risk--”

“Okay, okay,” Duke strokes a hand down Nathan’s chest, low where he can see it. “I won’t.” he promises.

Nathan nods, short and sharp then reaches for the sheets. To pull them over himself? To go to sleep?

“Hey,” Duke says, voice as gentle as Audrey’s ever heard it. “We were kind of in the middle of something here,” he points out.

Nathan snorts, turns his head away from Duke’s eyes. “Not really good for any of that anymore,” he mutters, pink stealing across his cheekbones, shoulders practically at his ears.

Duke takes hold of Nathan’s chin, drags his gaze up to meet his. “That, we can fix,” he tells him very seriously. “If you want us to,” he adds.

Nathan is silent for long, long seconds before he nods sharply.

Duke smiles, shoulders going lax, relief in every line of his body. Nathan isn’t locking them out, isn’t clamming up and pretending everything’s fine.

Audrey flicks open the bottle of lotion on the bedside table, gets a good squirt of it in her hand. But Duke surprises her, he takes the bottle from her and gets a dollop on his own, then he scoots forward from where he’s straddling Nathan’s hips. He stops for a moment, glances at Nathan and then reaches for the bottle again. He holds it out to Nathan and waits for Nathan to lift his hand. Duke smiles and squirts a generous amount in Nathan’s palm. He wraps both their hands around his and Nathan’s cocks, pressing them together so they’re tip to tip and guides Nathan in jacking them slow and gentle so the heads disappear and reappear with the stroke of their hands. He keeps the rhythm deliberate and constant, breath coming in with the same steady tempo.

Nathan’s free hand goes to Duke’s hips again, he doesn’t try to control the speed, just holds on. Audrey realizes he can sense Duke’s rhythm that way, the way it shakes his arm.

They rock together, easy, leisurely, cock heads slipping against one another. In their slick fists Nathan’s erection swells again, Duke’s starts leaking precum, their breaths coming heavier now, deep panting breaths that are almost in sync. Nathan’s expression is intense, all that laser focus on Duke as if by keeping his eyes on Duke he can keep him there, keep him safe.  

“Wish you could feel this, Nate,” Duke pants out on a groan, “wish you could feel how hard you are,” he gasps, “feel us sliding together. It’s…” Duke’s head tips back and he loses his train of thought.

Audrey longs to go to her knees to kiss all along his bared throat but she stays still, she’s letting them have this.

“Can see us,” Nathan startles them both when he speaks up, voice deeper even than it usually is. “Can see the way we’re pressed all the way together... root to tip… so close,” he breathes out.

Audrey finds she doesn’t feel left out watching them. She feels privileged that she gets to see them so intimate with each other. She gets to be a part of that.

Duke surprises her again after a few minutes. He reaches out and takes Audrey’s slick hand where it’s clenched on the covers, brings it to their shafts. He drags her open palm in a circle over the heads of their cocks making Nathan gasp and Duke himself curse.

Audrey smiles and scoots a little closer, touched to be included.

They take turns dragging their hands up the length of their erections, Audrey drags her hand to the top and lets go just as Duke wraps his hand around the base, then Nathan, then Audrey, and on and on they repeat, Duke and Nathan rocking slowly together, fucking into their grip.

Nathan throws his head back against the pillows, the tendons in his neck standing out and Audrey knows, knows he’s close. She speeds up then, making them speed up, their thrusts faster, less even. Duke jerks and cries out first, spilling over their hands. Audrey keeps hers moving slick with Duke’s come as they jack Nathan the last few strokes before he spurts over their fingers on a shout, collapsing back to the bed utterly boneless.

They lay quietly together, breaths slowing until Audrey cleans them up with tissues from the bedside table. Nathan and Duke struggle back into boxers and Audrey steals Duke’s discarded shirt. Audrey and Nathan browbeat Duke into the middle. Nathan spends the night sprawled over Duke, his ear pressed to Duke’s back, listening to the steady beat of Duke’s heart while Audrey sleeps tucked under his chin, the reassuring rise and fall of his chest a soothing rhythm under her cheek.

She only wakes once during the night in the infinite moment between one breath and the next when Duke’s chest is so still, his heartbeat so quiet she doesn’t think it’s there. He inhales in the next moment, his heart thuds under her ear once more and Audrey scrubs at the tears stinging her eyes before they can fall.

He’s here. They saved him she reminds herself, echoing his words.

She doesn’t let herself think the follow up thought.

They saved him...but for how long?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a fav part? line? Why not tell me about it in the comments? :)


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